Standing above the custom-made boiler— a tool made especially for her by Master Enchanter Verrio, the current First Chair of the Head Archivists— Kalina felt an odd mix of numbness, disbelief, excitement, and many many more currents sweep through her.
The manufacturing process was over and she was just waiting for the liquid inside to cool slowly. Contrary to that liquid, she was getting hotter and hotter inside her clothes. Some of it had to do with the outside heat that was rising by the minute, but it was the remnants of the Energy inside of her that was bothering her. With a conscious effort, she herded all of the remnants into her Well, leaving her feeling strangely empty and diminished.
Oh… Kalina exhaled and shifted her weight from one leg to the other, if only to scratch an itch that plagued her ever since the boy had given her the Energy. After a quick inhale, Kalina glanced at the boy’s grandfather. The quiet and imposing man had Energy inside of him and he didn’t seem to show any of the… symptoms that she had. Maybe… mhmm maybe it goes away after a while?
Another glance escaped her and Kalina noticed that the man had a graying head of hair and dark, weather-beaten skin, but she could see that under that wide white shirt he was still in good shape, with broad shoulders, thick arms of corded muscle, and giant hands that could probably easily envelop—
Someone touched her hand. “Teacher?”
With a gentle shake of her head, Kalina banished her thoughts. Lowlanders often had views on sex that involved expectations and consequences after it happened. It was better to wait and return to the Pyramid, where she could mingle without care for either. She turned to Seliana. "Yes?"
“Teacher, the way you coaxed and constrained…” Seliana said. “Is there any way…”
Coaxing certain features out of ingredients and constraining others was called refinement of ingredients and it was one of the main study topics among Alchemists and the cornerstone of the craft. How to get the effect of regeneration out of a salamander, while discarding the harmful ones? How to get a metalification effect out of any metal and make it last only a certain amount of time?
It was the most written about topic in Alchemy, as every alchemical material out there had a tome-sized book written about it, its effects, their reactions to various elements and ingredients, and more. Generations of mages had perfected the craft to heights that completely surpassed anything that could be done with mere Brewing skills. The number of books she had read, solely on the topic of refinement, numbered in tens of thousands. Alchemy was an ever-evolving craft, one where you always had something new to learn and something old to view under a new light.
“Without you becoming a mage and joining the Guild of Alchemists? No, Seliana. I’m afraid not,” Kalina answered Seliana’s unasked question. “You have the skills I told you about. You need to learn more about the ingredients and then get your skills to higher levels.”
Seliana nodded slowly, the joy, excitement, and shy expectation that she had written on her face melting away like northern snows in spring.
Kalina almost sighed. Seliana was both capable and dedicated. If only Seliana was a decade or two younger, then she would have taken Seliana as a Disciple and taught her Mana Manipulation and Mana Metamorphosis. But as things stood, Seliana would likely have to spend anywhere from half a decade to a decade of study, merely to join the Guild. That would make her sixty cycles old— and that was if she ignored the chance of failure, which was high.
With a wave of Kalina’s hand, the boiler rose and came to her, and she took a small sample of the potion with a glass vial. She swished the vial right under her nose, taking in the various smells of the potion. The many smells of her mana, the singularity that was that neutral Energy, the sweetness of the Fjaren, and many many more.
It was probably the best batch of a Potion of Regeneration that she had ever made and the main culprit was once more that Energy.
Where she normally had to morph her Energy and mana to refine ingredients, this neutral Energy almost did it for her! All she had to do was provide some proper guidance and will and the Energy had refined the ingredients in the precise ways that she needed them to be refined. From a mediocre batch of ingredients meant for four or five doses of the potion, Kalina estimated that she had made somewhere around seven standard doses of a potion that could probably restore missing limbs in a matter of a minute.
“Tercius,” Kalina called for the boy.
“Yes, Mistress?” he answered from somewhere above her and she turned in the direction of his voice. He was leaning on the open window of the second floor and looking at her with his green eyes. Kalina could smell that the spirit was with him.
“It’s best if these potions are taken within the next twelve hours, but sooner is better. They could last some… six months, but they won’t have even a fifth of their potency then. And under no circumstances is any child allowed to take it,” Kalina said and glanced at the boy’s sister and Penelope.
“Ahh…” the little girl said and her eyes darted around. She looked down immediately, her face turning scarlet.
Kalina smiled at the girl. All recipes for Potions of Regeneration made for still developing individuals had to have some alterations made to them, to stop certain effects of the potion. "They are safe for anyone over twenty cycles of age. The best way to take it is to induce a deep sleep right after you drink it so that the potion can complete its work without causing any discomfort," Kalina explained, but then she paused. Considering the circumstances, it was probably better to do some tests first.
"But I would like to test this potion first, to get a sense of the proper dosage," she said.
“Of course, Mistress. What can I do to help?” the boy asked.
“I need some mammalian subjects to test it on—” Kalina glanced at a furry beast that lazed near Tercius’ grandfather. The cat regarded Kalina with a suspicious swish of a furry tail. Kalina shook her head. These people seemed attached to their pets. Besides, she needed at least a few different test subjects. “Rodents. Ten to fifteen should do just fine,”
Tercius’ eyes briefly darted to the side in thought and then returned to rest on Kalina’. “I think I know just the place, Mistress,”
“Excellent. Show me the way,”
Those green eyes turned briefly to his grandfather, then his mother, and then the rest of his family. The boy sighed deeply. Something unspoken was exchanged and then Tercius’ eyes once more returned to Kalina.
"I'll be down in a moment, Mistress," Tercius said.
*********
While looking at Mistress Kalina, Tercius debated on sharing with her the extent of his family’s plight and… maybe even asking her to help. But… who was she to him? Who was he to her? No one was the answer to both questions. They were just two inhabitants of the same planet. Two strangers who were brought close to each other by a series of events.
He could change that by simply accepting her proposal, but it wasn’t that easy to do it. He was hoping that things would just return to how they used to be a year ago. Stuff the cat back in the bag, so to speak. The chances of that happening were minimal, he had to admit, but he still held onto that option. If time travel was possible, hmm…
So he hesitated and thought about their entire interaction from that day in the Courthouse.
On one hand, he could understand a part of her perspective.
Mistress Kalina had found and investigated this anomaly that was basically walking in her backyard. His own reaction to her actions was also bothering him. It was hypocritical of him to hold it against her for breaking into Seliana's home because if he placed himself in her place he would have done the same thing. He was trying to rid himself of that misplaced reaction, but it was slow.
What he failed to wrap his head around was Mistress Kalina’s proposal of something like Mentorship to an anomaly. This was just one of the tiny needles that poked him away from her.
He had realized something when he spoke to her, the day before. The woman spoke about years in decades, her age and perspective allowed that and the way she spoke about him and his future years… he might be imagining it but he had this feeling that the woman had placed some kind of expectation on him. Expectations usually meant plans. His old parents had been good unwanted planners of his life and they had been barely four decades old at the time. He had no idea what kind of plans a centuries-old mage was able to concoct.
He wouldn't mind staying at the Academy for a few years and learn more things about spells, enchantments, alchemy, healing, skills in general, and more, but he wasn't set on any of that. All of these were just interesting things to fill his time and thoughts. He could leave it all today. He gave no promises, he had no debts. That was very important to him. As far as he was concerned, he was free and under no obligations.
Would he be able to leave, if he accepted this Mentorship?
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
All of these things would have to be addressed before he accepted anything, Tercius decided. He had to ask her these questions and she had to answer.
But… Thinking about the lengths to which he would go to make sure nothing happened to Petra, Aurelia, and Leo, and everyone else, revealed no end. He glanced at the members of his family that were present in the inner garden and a stone settled in his stomach. If he had to weigh between his freedom from obligations and his family's safety and security…
It was difficult to tell which one was heavier. He could pay with one to ensure the other, but…
Tercius sighed deeply and turned to Mistress Kalina. The woman was looking at him with those hawk eyes. She had a right to know since those men could come to bother them. If he was right about his neighbors, then they were either already alerted of Tercius' return or about to be.
"I'll be down in a moment, Mistress," he said.
*********
“That’s twelve of them?”
Tercius nodded as he carried the metal cage filled with rodents. “Yes, Mistress,”
“Let’s try for three more,”
Tercius had not been to the slums of Nurium since that incident with the giant eagle, on his tenth birthday. The place was just like he remembered it, a ruin full of dried and splintered wood, shattered and pulverized stone and all of it was crawling with rats and insects.
Here and there, hunched human husks huddled in the shadows of collapsed structures, people so old, thin and worn down that Tercius wondered how they still lived.
A slow and haunted groan tore the silence, a sound that sapped all life from Tercius. He turned to the shambles of the house they just passed by and tried to banish thoughts of ghosts from his mind. Then he remembered the newest addition to his household…
"Oh, dear…" Mistress Kalina uttered beside him and all of a sudden she took faster steps, heading right for that house.
“Mistress…”
From a role of a guide, Tercius found himself a follower that took hurried steps after the Mistress. The elder mage closed the distance and entered the ramshackle hut, ducking under a wooden beam. He followed right after her only to find an elderly woman who lay prone on a pile of debris. The skirt that the woman wore was lifted to above her knees from where an aged leg was turned completely to the wrong side. The woman's lips were cracked and dry and her eyelids were closed, but Tercius saw the eyes move underneath. There was no blood anywhere, but a lot of angry-looking swelling was present around the knee that seemed ready to completely detach.
"Look here," Mistress Kalina said and used her hand to show him the ankle. It was completely bent to the side, the swelled foot below it perfectly stuck in a hole. "Her foot got caught, then she stumbled and twisted her leg in two places. A few days, I think. She's barely alive," Mistress Kalina said while looking at the old woman with pity in her eyes.
The old bag of wrinkled flesh and bones moaned in pain with great difficulty, her lungs barely able to squeeze the air out. Tercius wrinkled his nose as he took his first real breath on the scene. The woman had most likely been in this state for a few days, judging by the smell.
Mistress Kalina waved a hand and the room dimmed a bit. He glanced upwards and saw that they were under a dark dome of some kind, which let most of the light through but the heat that came from the heavens was gone. While he looked up, Mistress Kalina had taken out a small metal flask.
“Calm! Numb Pain!" Mistress Kalina invoked a spell and the woman's weak bodily protests dulled. "Wake up." Mistress Kalina gave gentle rhythmic slaps to the woman's face until her eyes cracked open. "Something to drink. Take it slow," Mistress Kalina pushed the flask to the woman's mouth, who took the liquid with small and slow, labored gulps.
“That will help her with the dehydration,” Mistress Kalina explained, as the flask vanished. “Place the cage there and step aside.”
As soon as he placed the cage down and took a few steps away, Mistress Kalina snapped her fingers and the cage disappeared. The rats dispersed everywhere, but less than a meter from their cage all found a barrier waiting.
A single fine finger levitated a squealing rat out of the tall circular barrier. The rat frantically struggled, its squeals making the other rats agitated.
“Total Paralysis! Numb Pain!” Mistress Kalina uttered the spells, the ethereal words of Magik leaving a silent flying statue behind. With Mana Sight [40] he spotted two rings of shrouded mana around the rat's neck.
He glanced down at the woman whose foot was stuck, ankle most likely broken, knee twisted out of the socket, and Tercius saw where this was going. The old woman was seemingly sleeping and she had two similar rings around her neck.
A closed fist rose to cover his mouth and he felt like being anywhere else. But then he thought about why he was here and he took a deep breath. The smell that came with the breath was horrible. This old woman was clearly in need of help and they were providing that help. The potion was safe to consume, Mistress Kalina had told him. She just needed to understand the proper dosage. The Energy that he had given her had gone above and beyond and she wasn’t sure that she could allow the normal dose to be administered. That was all.
“Mistress…” Tercius wetted his parched lips, the words coming with more difficulty than usual. “Is the woman… a test subject?”
Mistress Kalina's eyes turned his way from a brief moment. “If she wants to be. Remember Tercius, a mage always asks. If possible, of course.”
Mistress Kalina waved a hand and the back right leg along with the rat's tail just fell, cleaved off with a perfectly straight cut made with an invisible and untraceable blade. Even as the lower part fell to the floor, a drop of the potion fell onto the flesh and the visible innards of the rat. Suddenly all of it moved and pulsed like a still beating, blood-drenched heart. Tissue gave birth to more tissue, the perfectly cleaved off bones grew back with every second, and a new tail speared upwards. Bare pink flesh grew and a few seconds after that, new growth of black fur covered the pinkness. It took no more than five seconds for the rat to be complete. Its new fur was perfectly clean, and the difference with the old dusty one was startling. It was as if someone had covered a part of the rat and gave a thorough clean only to one side. It was like a live show of before and after.
"Four and a half seconds. Let's see how long the potion lasts…" Mistress Kalina said and her hands came together to break an imaginary stick. The rat's spine snapped one second and then came back together with another snap, its body contorting exactly like Mistress Kalina's hands moved. The hands moved away and Tercius observed the rat reassemble its spine. Small crunching sounds came from the rat, and Tercius shivered along his spine. He saw movement under the fur and it took almost ten seconds for that movement to stop. During that time Tercius hadn't taken a single breath.
He could imagine himself in the place of that rat with ease.
Mistress Kalina continued performing her experiments, adjusting the dosage with each test subject.
"Roughly twenty-one percent of standard dosage gives perfect results," Mistress Kalina said, with an empty gaze. "The best potion of regeneration I ever made was at forty-five…"
“Err… What does that mean, Mistress? Practically speaking?”
“Where do I start, neophyte?” Mistress Kalina asked, shaking her head. “First, from the ingredients that would normally make four or maybe five standard potions doses, I have made seven," she snapped in excitement. "Now, I just finished testing the potency of the potion and the numbers seem absurd. It's between four and five times as potent as a high-quality potion, even when I account for the standard error! It's in a category… that doesn't exist…" she finished with a whisper.
“Oh…” Tercius said. “That’s… good.”
"Neophyte," she said, her hands clenching and Tercius heard the bones in the last rat crack. "You don't understand. With all Potions of Regeneration, it's a race against time. The limit is usually reached within the hour and then you have to wait for the body to lose that acquired resistance, before taking a new potion. That's why potions with better potency are always preferred. They simply do a lot more in that narrow time frame…"
“Mistress…” Tercius said, glancing at the hovering rat that was the last rodent test subject of Mistress Kalina. “This limit. How does it come about?”
"Well… the whole of the body counteracts the potion, neophyte," Mistress Kalina explained as took a deep breath and let the last rat back into the barrier. The little creature was released from the paralysis and the pain-numbing, and it skittered around as nothing had happened. "But the largest culprit, by far, are the mana channels. Within minutes of when the potion comes into contact with the channels, they start to learn how to take and neutralize the magic from the potion, and within an hour the potion is mostly inert. There is a whole branch of Alchemy that deals with the proper administration of potions to maximize their effects."
“But doesn’t that mean that mages…” Tercius said, slowly grasping at something. “Mistress… We have broader channels… and there’s the Well, as well—”
“—and therefore we mages need much better potions. Oh yes. A fine nose for details you have there. Yes indeed. A potion that would regenerate my arm, for example, would regenerate… roughly two arms and legs to a fully grown non-mage,”
"Err…" Tercius nodded slowly. Suddenly, a worrisome question arose. "And… Mistress… these calculations that you've just done… are they meant for mages or non-mages?"
"Why for non-mages, of course," Mistress Kalina answered with an amused snort while showing him a mouth full of teeth. "I'm not that old, neophyte."
“Oh, no. I… I wasn’t— I mean, I was just…” Tercius swallowed. The woman was sensitive about her age.
“Doubting my mental faculty?” she looked at him with one raised eyebrow, her upturned green eyes piercing into him.
Tercius became as still as if under Total Paralysis. There was no good answer here.
The woman laughed and shook her head. “You need to breathe a bit, neophyte. I was just teasing you,”
"Oh…" Tercius let out a silent breath of relief. There were moments in his interaction with Mistress Kalina when things felt so natural and easy, almost like breathing, and then there were moments where he felt that he had walked barefoot onto a field of pins and needles. The shift from the first to the second was not a pleasant experience. It was like playing with fire. Mistress Kalina was no ordinary fire either. She was a bonfire and he was just a moth flying too close to her flame.
He was just waiting for that flame to burn him already.
Mistress Kalina walked past him and crouched over the old woman. A hand was placed on the cheek of the woman. “Woman.” Mistress Kalina called and then gave a small slap to the wrinkled cheek. A few slaps later and the haunted eyes of the woman snapped open with a groan.
“I have here a potion that can help you mend that leg. Do you want it?” Mistress Kalina asked, her eyes looking straight into the eyes of the woman who looked decades older than her.
The lips moved slowly, but no words came out. She seemed to be trying to move her head, but her neck refused to move.
“Help. Do you want help?”
The old woman’s eyes closed.
Tercius opened his mouth. He wanted to ask why don’t they just give the potion to the old woman, but even before he uttered the words, he remembered what Mistress Kalina told him earlier. A mage had to ask.
But what if this woman couldn’t answer?
Would they just leave the woman there to die?
Would he just leave the woman there, when he had a power in his hands to help her?
Mistress Kalina kept trying to wake the woman, but nothing worked. “I need to remove the spell that blocks pain. She keeps falling asleep because of it,” she sighed.
With a wave of a hand, the old woman began to try to contort her body, as the pain began its assault anew.
“Do you want help?” Mistress Kalina asked again and this time the old woman nodded repeatedly, all traces of sleep gone from her.
“Numb Pain!” Mistress Kalina cast the spell again and the woman relaxed once more, now glaring at the orange-haired Mistress. Mistress Kalina smiled. “I should realign this leg to a proper position, before the potion. We don’t want the potency to be expended on such trivial issues that can be solved by brute force,” Mistress Kalina hummed and as Tercius watched, the hole in which the leg was stuck was extended with a groan. Mistress Kalina’s hands came right under the knee and her fingers seemed to grab onto something and then the arm turned. With the arm’s movement, the leg turned into the proper position and the knee slid back into its proper place with a sickening sound. Mistress Kalina then moved to the ankle and made the necessary corrections there.
“Oral intake of these kinds of potions is suboptimal to direct injection into different muscle groups all over the body. But we don’t have the conditions to do that here,” Mistress Kalina explained as she tipped the potion into the open mouth of the old woman. With a few difficult swallows, the old woman drank everything.
“Now smell this,” Mistress Kalina waved a small vial under the nose of the woman and the old lady relaxed like a wooden log. All of the tension in her body went slack. Tercius eyebrows rose. Whatever that was, it seemed awfully similar to what Lux had used.
Mistress Kalina waved her hand. The debris below their feet moved to the side and two wooden chairs appeared. “Come. Sit. We can have another hour of interaction while we wait.”